


it's time that we need

by castellanus



Category: Oh My Girl (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 15:19:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18831301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castellanus/pseuds/castellanus
Summary: not the beginning, middle, or end.





	it's time that we need

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tonyang (kurusui)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurusui/gifts).



> no romance involved - it's a look into jiho and binnie's relationship. entirely fiction based on a lot of fact - extra info before you read: trainees are usually put into a "debut team" when the company decides they're debut material, but it's not set in stone; binnie and mimi were roommates as trainees; jiho likes jjajangmyeon more than jjamppong

Yoobin looks into the mirror; not at herself, but at the analog clock on the wall behind her that reads some time past 11 - and then a little further, to a figure sitting cross-legged on the floor bent over her laptop. The practice room is dimly lit, and quite frankly, stuffy and uncomfortable. Yoobin just wants to go home and sleep, but that's not an option right now.

 

Jiho's doing that thing again today.

 

The thing she does when she gets frustrated with the limitations of her skills, where she works herself up into a state of I-don't-need-help-I-just-have-to-focus and refuses to talk to anyone. And it's driving Yoobin mad.

 

She wishes she could ignore Jiho and do the same, if only so she could focus on her own practice - she's done it just fine before. But today her attention keeps wandering over to the other side of the room, stealing glances at Jiho boring holes into the mirror with her gaze as she dances, staring at the outline of her form slumped over on the ground with headphones in. It's bothering her still in the wee hours of the morning, and she's tired and sweaty and feels like she might catch a cold. If only Jiho would finally break the silence and say they can go home now.

 

It's not like she doesn't have the right to be affected by Jiho's state. They're in the same group for the upcoming evaluation, and are practicing for the same thing, for god's sake, just separately because Jiho's doing this. (To be fair, they're well prepared. Group practice had gone perfectly yesterday, which is why Suyeon didn’t join them after lessons today. The air has been stagnant since then.)

She coughs.

 

“Jiho.”

 

Jiho raises her head to look at Yoobin slowly. Her eyes are big and unreadable.

 

“It's late,” Yoobin tries. “We should go.”

 

Jiho blinks at her, expression blank. Yoobin thinks she looks just as tired.

 

“Yeah. Okay.” She finally looks away, shutting her laptop closed and shuffling to her feet.

 

Laying in bed a few hours later, Yoobin can’t help but wonder if she imagined something shift in Jiho’s eyes.

 

-

 

The three of them get together to practice once more before the monthly evaluation. Suyeon kills it in the main vocal role, and Jiho and Yoobin hold their own, Yoobin watching her reflection in the mirror, winking and smiling as she moves to follow the shifting formation. Part of her wonders if she’ll ever be able to sing half as well as Suyeon does, but she brushes the thought away to focus on dancing.  


“Together the three of us are a force to be reckoned with,” Yoobin jokes, tightening the cap on her water bottle.

 

“We’ll do well.” Jiho’s cheeks plump up as she grins. Suyeon hits her on the back lightly, and laughs.

“Well, don’t go around stating the obvious. What else could happen when we have the one and only Kim Jiho and Bae Yoobin on our team?”

 

“Hey, don’t take yourself out of it!” Yoobin shoots an incredulous look at her before breaking into a smile. “Your part is what makes it.”

 

Suyeon laughs as she readjusts her ponytail. “No way.”

 

“Yes way!” Jiho mimes punching in Suyeon’s direction.

 

They’ll do well. Yoobin’s heart swells at the thought, even if it’s partly anxious bravado.

 

When the day comes, they do just that. Actually, their results might be among the highest they’ve gotten so far. Not only are they praised on their group performance, but Yoobin’s solo song goes really well too. Jiho’s feedback is mixed, but not overwhelmingly negative. And Suyeon’s dancing is criticized, but Yoobin thinks it ends on a positive note, as her vocals always win out.  
  


 

Which is why she and Jiho are at an absolute loss, a few weeks later, when they’re told Suyeon is leaving.

 

‘You don’t quite fit the image we’ve decided to go for.’

Is what they tell Suyeon, or rather, what Suyeon tells the others they told her.

Jiho’s seen a decent amount of people come and go in her time here, but even that can’t inhibit her disbelief, and the sadness that lingers. After the initial outburst and then a painful goodbye, however, she seems to be taking it better than Yoobin is.

 

“I just don’t get it.” Yoobin is in Jiho’s room, back against her bed frame. She shakes her head, and continues quietly.

“I mean, I get it, but I don’t. Why would they decide to change, plans, images, whatever, after we’ve been training in the debut team for this long? Why _Suyeon_ of all people!”

 

Jiho sighs, lying back onto her pillow, and her eyes look sad. A little defeated, maybe.

“I dunno. They think it’s better for the group in the long run, or whatever. There’s nothing we can do.”

 

“Do you think they’ll find someone else to fill her spot?”

 

“Probably… they will. I think they’re dead set on having 8 members.”

 

They’re quiet for a while. Jiho stares up at the bottom of Hyejin’s bed, and Yoobin watches her face before averting her gaze to stare at the wall.

 

“I wonder what she’ll be like.”

 

Yoobin turns in response, and Jiho’s still staring upwards.

 

“The new person they’ll find.”

 

“I’m sure she’ll be nice,” Yoobin replies. Their company always makes sure to find nice people. Jiho hums in agreement.

 

Yoobin is thinking. “I wonder how old she’ll be.” Jiho doesn’t say anything.

 

In a lot of ways, Suyeon was always the one to bridge the gap between the same aged friends. She was close to them both, and Yoobin only became kind of close to Jiho _through Suyeon_. The times they had spent alone without her were awkward ones, though not uncomfortable.

 

How will things progress from here? Well, she knows, they’ll just have to keep going with whatever happens, training day and night, learning to get along, adjusting to the new member… it feels like a daunting task.

Yoobin knows that management wouldn’t even think of dropping either of them (though she had thought that of Suyeon as well). It’s the last thing she wants. Despite their differences and their distance, she and Jiho are friends, and _members_ now. In some unusual, nonchalant way, they’ve come to rely on each other. Yoobin can’t think of anyone else that she could be having this conversation with.

So when Jiho unfurrows her brow, looks at her with some semblance of warmth in her eyes, and tells her it’ll be okay, Yoobin believes it.

 

-

 

Not too long after, they pull Yoonji from the debut team. They're all affected by it in different capacities. Yoobin can only watch as the dark expression Jiho carries around for a few days becomes blank, and then a poor attempt at feigning normalness.

 

When Yoobin hears a knock on the bedroom door and opens it to Jiho, wearing a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes, she knows she’s not the one Jiho’s here to talk to.

 

They swap beds for the night.

 

“Thanks,” is what Jiho says to her in the morning, eyes puffy, as Yewon scrambles to put her uniform on. Yoobin isn’t sure if she’s happy to hear her say it.

 

 

***

 

 

“You really do eat well,” Yoobin comments, an amused look on her face. “How can all of that fit in your mouth?”

 

Jiho's too busy slurping up noodles without breaking them to respond right away. “Mm-mmph-” she says while chewing, as if Yoobin is supposed to understand what that means. She laughs when Jiho splatters some soup onto the table as she puts her chopsticks down.

 

“This, is how you do it, Binnie.” She wipes her mouth before picking up a shrimp with her chopsticks. “Eating noodles any other way just doesn't taste as good.”

 

“If you say so… but I can't fit that much into my mouth.” Yoobin bites her noodles.

 

“Your face is so small, of course you can't,” Jiho smirks. “Just put whatever you can in there until it's full instead.” (Yoobin doesn't do it.)

 

It's Sunday, so they don't have lessons after schedules, or anything important tomorrow. Yoobin was craving jjamppong, and there was a popular place close by that she wanted to go to after _Inkigayo_.

 

“Binnie, I'll go with you!” Jiho had said, “I'm starving.”

 

If Yoobin was surprised by the offer, she didn't let it show on her face. Neither of them had eaten real food since morning.

“Sure. Sounds good. You want jjamppong too? Or they have other options, anyways.”

 

Yoobin didn’t miss the twinkle in Jiho's eyes. “Jjamppong is the best on cold days.”

 

 

Jiho's sitting across from Yoobin on her new iPhone now, scrolling through her hashtag on Twitter. She laughs at something as Yoobin chews on a mouthful of vegetables.

 

“Hey, look at this.”

 

Yoobin leans forward to see the screen. It’s a press photo of herself, bent over crying on stage at _The Show_ and Shiah patting her back.

 

“Stop,” Yoobin whines, suppressing laughter. “I can’t believe people are still posting those pictures.”

 

“I can.” Jiho won’t stop smiling at her phone, and Yoobin wants to hit her because of it. “It’s so funny. YooA unnie’s face! The way the top of your head is visible. It’s art, really.”

 

They laugh, and Yoobin turns to her own phone, opening KakaoTalk.

 

Hyojung unnie

 **Make sure to get back safely~** 3 7:29 PM

 

Seunghee unnie

 **(Emoticon)** 3 7:32 PM

 

She checks out of habit, and Secret Garden is still in Melon’s Top 100 real-time chart. It went up a few places.

 

“You know,” Yoobin starts, knowing Jiho doesn’t check the charts often. She continues regardless. “We really have come a long way.”

 

Jiho looks up at her, and her eyes crinkle at the corners. “You’re just realizing that now?” Yoobin rolls her eyes.

 

“I’m just kidding, I know, we have,” Jiho laughs, pushing her hair behind her shoulder. “I still remember Cupid like it was yesterday, but we were such babies. Your face was so squishy and you looked like a baby chick.” She’s nice for once, and doesn’t do the jjajangmyeon skit. "And I  _still_ can't believe that Arinie is 20!!! It's terrible!"

 

“And you’re still the same, huh,” Yoobin chuckles, more like a statement than a question.

 

Jiho makes a face. “No, I’ve changed too.”

 

“Your face, I mean.” Yoobin reaches to refill their glasses with soju.

 

“I lost baby fat too!”

 

Yoobin raises her eyebrows at her over her shot glass.

 

“Okay, I guess, it wasn’t that drastic,” Jiho sighs, downing her own. “We’ve all grown, though.”

 

She agrees with that. They've all grown a lot. Yoobin takes a picture of their half-eaten bowls to send to the group chat.

 

 

** 7:43 PM ** ** 5 ** **(Photo)**

 

Seunghee unnie

 **(Emoticon)** ** 5 ** ** 7:50 PM **

 

Seunghee unnie

 **That looks good give me some!!** ** 5 ** ** 7:50 PM **

  


***

  


The Japanese book on Yoobin’s bed has been open to the same page for the past 15 minutes (she may or may not have drifted off while studying). Shiah is still in the bathroom.

 

Yoobin was never one to let work pile up. It’s a day off during promotions, and they had a Japanese lesson in the afternoon. After they finish promotions in Korea, they have more activities lined up in Japan. It’s tiring, she thinks. Tiring, but satisfying. It feels like things are going well these days, like they have momentum, and even if she’s tired she doesn’t want it to slow down.

 

Yawning, Yoobin takes her book and pen and wanders into the living room - she finds Jiho in her pajamas sitting on the couch, and Seunghee singing to herself cleaning in the kitchen.

 

“Hey, Kim Jiho,” Yoobin says, plopping down next to her. “Do you want to help me study Japanese?”

 

Jiho looks up from her iPad, eyes wide, before relaxing into a smile. “What’s this all of a sudden? Sure, I’ll help you out, Bae Binnie.”

 

Yoobin scoffs. “Thanks.” She opens her book and points to a line on the page. Slowly, she starts, “What’s the difference between saying this and…”

 

After a few minutes, they fall into conversation using Yoobin’s unstable and Jiho’s near-fluent Japanese. Seunghee shoots them a “sugoi desu-ne!!!” as she retreats into her room a little later.

  


Jiho coaches her through the homework, and Yoobin notes down the things Jiho teaches her when she has to pause to speak in Korean instead. It reminds Yoobin of when she had her first few Japanese lessons as a trainee - fumbling in front of the teacher with Yewon, wrapping their tongues around the unfamiliar intonation and struggling to remember the symbols. Jiho’s knowledge of the language wasn’t nearly as great as it is now, but she had an innate knack for it, and way more experience.

 

As intimidating as she seemed, Kim Jiho always helped the trainees with their Japanese. The 17 year old girl that called WM Entertainment her second home, that Yoobin had so often dreaded speaking to back then (and on later occasions throughout the years). She’s still there in the girl next to her, quipping at Yoobin’s mistakes and calling her name playfully, eyes shining. Yoobin enjoys playing along today.

  


She’s careful not to wake Shiah as she enters their room, mind chock full of new words and phrases and the sound of Jiho’s goofy laugh.

They didn’t go to bed quite as early as they should have that night, but Yoobin doesn’t mind too much.

 

The sleep that she does get is peaceful.

**Author's Note:**

> recent events and discussions had me thinking about binho a lot and i'm also trying to get over my fear of writing so i pumped this kinda meta-y? fic out as quickly as i could;; binnie and jiho in 2014, 2018, 2019. hope you enjoyed.  
> edit: a note- when wm decide not to debut yoonji in omg, she still stays in wm, it's assumed they wanted to save her for a solo later or something


End file.
